Posted on 03/08/2006 9:35:55 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - NASA scientists were nervous as an orbiter neared Mars after a seven-month voyage carrying the most expensive equipment ever sent to another planet.
"We have a tremendous amount of anxiety and concern at this particular point in time," said Jim Graf, project manager for the Mars Reconnaissance Observer (MRO).
"At the same time we feel confident, we have a very good spacecraft ... (and an) excellent well trained team," he said in a press conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"We are about 325,000 miles (523,036 kilometers) from Mars. We're traveling at about 6,400 miles (10,300 kilometers) an hour and we are going to double our speed as we get closer to Mars," he said.
The tricky part, he said, will be maneuvering the craft into a Mars orbit. Because of the great distance, it takes 12 minutes for data to reach Earth from the craft -- and another 12 minutes for instructions to be sent back.
"There is no time for the team as a whole to react," he said.
"So we have on board all the programs we need to carry out, and the spacecraft has to do it all on its own."
"Mars is unpredictable," Graf said. The tally of travel to Mars is grim: of the 35 missions to Mars since 1960, 21 have failed.
To achieve Mars orbit, the probe's engines will begin firing at 2125 GMT on Friday for 27 minutes. That should slow the craft enough to allow its capture by Mars' gravity.
About 20 minutes later, the orbiter will disappear behind Mars for 30 minutes before it renews contact with very anxious scientists on Earth.
At first, the probe will be in a highly elliptical orbit 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Mars at the closest point and 44,000 kilometers (27,340 miles) at its apogee.
In late March, NASA engineers will start operations to bring the probe to a round orbit close to Mars so it can begin its 25-month observation mission.
The MRO carries six observation and analysis instruments to search from its outer atmosphere to below the martian surface for signs of water and ice.
That's the only way anybody will see this LIVE thread.
bump
Step by step slowly I turn...
or something like that...
spaceflightnow.com
2114 GMT (4:14 p.m. EST)
Main engine start is now 10 minutes away.
bttt
Not Breaking News
Live Thread BUMP...
I know. Let's keep it bumped.
Gonna go check the NASA television channel.
Not Breaking News bump :)
2 minutes until the burnout is complete?
spaceflightnow.com
2117 GMT (4:17 p.m. EST)
MRO is 2,300 miles from Mars and traveling at 10,000 miles per hour.
Was the pc station labeled "Propulsion" on the Free republic site?
Historic Moment Not-A-Live-Thread Bump.
Or something like that...
spaceflightnow.com
2119 GMT (4:19 p.m. EST)
Five minutes from ignition. The orbit insertion burn is performed by the spacecraft's six main engines. A valve is electrically opened to route fuel into the engines, flowing over high-temperature catalyst beds that cause the propellant to ignite and blast through the cluster of nozzles at very high speed.
spaceflightnow.com
2120 GMT (4:20 p.m. EST)
MRO has completed its turn. The craft has achieved the orientation for the burn.
Peanuts being circulated. 2 minutes till jar is empty.
spaceflightnow.com
2122 GMT (4:22 p.m. EST)
All spacecraft sub-systems are "go."
Bump
Mars Bump!
spaceflightnow.com
2124 GMT (4:24 p.m. EST)
MOI IGNITION! Flying backward with the red planet looming near, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has ignited its cluster of six main engines for the 27-minute orbit insertion burn. This engine firing will slow the spacecraft's speed by 2,200 mph, enabling the planet to capture the probe before sailing past.
Keeping fingers crossed that this is not Broken News.
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